Special Report: Human Rights Day 2008

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

On this very important day for human rights, our panel of experts all concur that human rights are integral to development. But how can we ensure that human rights are promoted effectively? How do we address the massive abuses against civilians in parts of the developing world? How might the developed world better respect and uphold human rights? Here, our panel considers what more can be done to address human rights violations on a global level.

60 years after its creation, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is as relevant today as ever. Its principles are fundamental and are for everyone. Yet more than half a century after so many throughout the world pledged to support this ideal, are we in danger of slipping?

Economic crises, conflict, terrorism, natural disaster and other emergencies have been used as excuses for not living up to human rights.

While violations are more prevalent, or at least are more publicised, in some parts of the globe than others, the developing and developed world alike share the burden. Issues continue to dominate headlines worldwide, from freedom of speech in China to detention without trial in the UK.

So what needs to be done?

John Battle, a long-standing Labour MP, and chairman of numerous parliamentary groups, argues that it is essential to tackle more than just governments, and engage individuals throughout parliaments as well as regional and local authorities.

Analysts at the Overseas Development Institute also argue that engagement throughout society is crucial and that 'citizen state relations are at the heart of human rights'.

One World Action director Graham Bennett considers genuine democracy to be the key to promoting human rights – emphasising the importance of representing all groups, and supporting the most marginalised.

Dr Agnès Callamard, executive director, ARTICLE 19, says that these democracies are not without fault and that to promote human rights in the developing world, one must first protect them in established and new democracies of richer countries. Freedom of expression, she argues, is central to this.

More broadly, Amnesty International's director Kate Allen says that world leaders should recommit to the "vision of their predecessors" to mark the UDHR anniversary.

Human Rights Day provides a chance to reflect on a hugely important issue. Amidst the challenges the world faces, it is a reminder to preserve the world's greatest asset – its people.

---

Kate Allen, UK Director, Amnesty International

In December, we mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a visionary document that sets out for the first time the fundamental rights to which everyone, everywhere, is entitled.

Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the rights enshrined in the UDHR, including the right to healthcare, food, clothing, housing and education. But our vision cannot be realised while at least two billion people continue to live in poverty, struggling for these very things.

Meanwhile, the world isn't on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals that, while far from perfect, would go some way to improving health, living conditions and education for many in the developing world by 2015.

Other human rights violations afflict the developing world. For example, armed conflicts accompanied by massive abuses against civilians – unlawful killings, displacement and sexual violence – continue in Somalia, eastern Chad, Darfur, Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere.

The UDHR's 60th anniversary would best be marked by today's world leaders across the developed and the developing world, showing the vision of their predecessors and recommitting to human rights as the way of dealing with the challenges of the 21st Century.

---

John Battle MP, Chairman, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development

Petitioning presidents on individual human rights cases cannot be enough. It's time to address human rights in the context of developing democratic structures and institutions, and not to assume 'democracy' is a 'northern fully developed practice' simply exportable to developing countries.

In particular, much more attention should now be focused on parliaments, regional and local councils. In the past, 'democracy' has been reduced to voting, elections and the emergence of a government to deal with. But in practice, relationships with the ruling party in power (the government) and its institutions and ministries have neglected elected parliaments' opposition parties and groups, and the development of institutions 'from the village up' blending traditional village community engagement with democratic inclusive developments. Human rights, as it were, 'stays at home'.

Donor governments talking to recipient governments has not facilitated a better international interchange between, for example, parliamentarians and councillors at all levels. Whether it is villagers from Northern Ghana already engaged in participation budgeting, visiting my inner city constituency to inspire a tenants' group to revive a boarded up community centre, or backbench MPs twinning with their international counterparts to compare detailed notes on practices of accountability and transparency in their daily work – the task is one of deepening democracy. Nor is it a one-way street. Democracy is still a relatively young project – and we in the North can also learn from the experiences of the South.

Mutual interchanges at all levels of politics would take the focus off 'government to current government', but it could open up real possibilities of deepening our international understanding and practice of 'good governance'.

---

Marta Foresti and Bhavna Sharma, Rights in Action programme, Overseas Development Institute (ODI)

Human rights have become progressively recognised as a key dimension of the international development discourse. Since the 1990s, an increasing number of agencies have been introducing and implementing 'human rights-based approaches' in their policies and programmes, particularly since governance and democratic politics have moved centre stage in the development debates. What is perhaps less clear is the extent to which the resistance towards the operational integration of human rights and development practice has been overcome. Recent research conducted by ODI suggests that despite the favourable policy environment, some development agencies are still struggling to anchor their policies and strategic objectives in the international human rights framework, with its standards and obligations.

Despite these challenges, human rights have great potential to improve development practice. Recent work from ODI on 'voice and accountability' suggests that improved citizen-state relations are central to a realistic agenda on good governance. Citizen-state relations are at the heart of human rights, which considers all individuals (and not just citizens) as rights holders who can place demands on the duty bearers (primarily the state), who have an obligation, not an option, to enforce and protect their rights.

However, voice does not automatically lead to accountability: voice without concrete mechanisms to effectively hold the state accountable is not likely to achieve change. There is currently insufficient attention paid to these accountability mechanisms, legal or otherwise, that are so central to the human rights enterprise, and could have a real impact to achieve change in practice and further promote the importance of human rights in the developing (and developed) world.

---

Graham Bennett, Director, One World Action

Strong and genuine democracy best promotes human rights. For an international development agency like One World Action, this means supporting those most marginalised from the political process – disabled people, Dalits, people living with HIV/AIDS – to hold their elected representatives and state institutions accountable. It also means promoting women's political participation; equitable development is not possible if half the world is excluded.

We have supported women market traders in India to campaign successfully through the courts for a ladies-only market where they can sell their vegetables safe from harassment and beatings. We are supporting partner organisations in Tanzania, giving legal advice and protection to refugees from Burundi, DRC and elsewhere who face gender-based violence in camps. In Nicaragua, disabled women have successfully campaigned for an elected Procurator to promote the rights of 350,000 disabled people. In all these cases, citizens are transforming their own lives, and claiming their own rights. We in the rich world can help remove barriers for our fellow citizens in developing countries, and stop erecting new ones. Well targeted aid that strengthens democracy, rather than undermining it, will help; we need to tread carefully on new aid modalities like direct budget support to governments with weak accountability to their own citizens. We can stop putting up new barriers, like imposing unfair trade agreements or selling arms to undemocratic regimes. By supporting marginalised citizens in their own countries, and exercising our vote to ensure our own governments do not undermine them, we can strengthen democracy and promote human rights.

---

Dr Agnès Callamard, Executive Director, ARTICLE 19

To better promote human rights in the developing world, we first ought to ensure that human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled by and in the developed world. Violations committed by the governments of long established or new democracies, or complicity with others' violations, are used as justification by many perpetrators for their own abuses, and reverse efforts and progresses the world over, including in the developing world.

Secondly, better promotion requires stronger and more effective voices. Our silences on human rights abuses and censorship of those who wish to denounce them amount to condoning these abuses. Censorship kills. It starves and it silences. It feeds and perpetuates corruption. Instead, we should protect and strengthen the rights and capacities of everyone to seek, receive and impart information and ideas on human rights issues, through any media and regardless of frontiers.

An active protection and promotion of freedom of expression is central to achieving individual freedoms and tackling the underlying causes of poverty. It increases the knowledge base and participation within a society, secures external checks on state accountability, and thus prevents corruption that thrives on secrecy and closed environments. The promotion and protection of freedom of expression enable people to gain access to information on government actions and policies, voice opinions and dissent, participate in free and fair elections, and influence the present and future of their nations. The enhanced protection of freedom of expression will empower people to make informed decisions about their lives and hold their government to account, including for human rights abuses. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right that guarantees all other rights, including life. It is not a luxury.

Many of the issues identified in this special report were discussed further in Issue 11 of Public Service Review: International Development Online. Issue 12, is released on 12th December 2008, with a special Millennium Development Goals focus – don't miss it.